Some years past I perceived how manyFalsitiesI admitted asTruthsin my Younger years, and howDubiousthose things were which I raised from thence; and therefore I thought it requisite (if I had a designe to establish any thing that should provefirmeandpermanentin sciences) that once in my life I should clearly cast aside all my former opinions, and begin a new from someFirst principles. But this seemed a great Task, and I stillexpected that maturity of years, then which none could be more apt to receive Learning; upon which Account I waited so long, that at last I should deservedly be blamed had I spent that time inDeliberationwhich remain’d only forAction.
This day therefore I conveniently released my mind from all cares, I procured to my self a Time Quiet, and free from all Business, I retired my self Alone; and now at length will I freely and seriously apply my self to the General overthrow of all my former Opinions.
To the Accomplishment of Which, it will not be necessary for me to prove them allfalse(for that perhaps I shall never atcheive) But because my reason perswades me, that I must withdraw my assent no less from those opinions which seemnot so very certainandundoubted, then I should from those that areApparently false, it will be sufficient if I reject all those wherein I find anyOccasionof doubt.
Neither to effect this is it necessary, that they all should be run over particularly (which would be an endles trouble) but because theFoundationbeing onceundermin’d, whatever is built thereon will of its own accord come to the ground, I shall therefore immediately assault the veryprinciple, on which whatever I have believed wasgrounded. Viz.
Whatever I have hitherto admitted as most true, that I received either from, or by my Senses; but these I have often found to deceive me, and ’tis prudence never certainly to trust those that I have (tho but once) deceived us.
1Doubt.But tho sometimes thesensesdeceive us being exercised aboutremoteorsmallobjects, yet there are many other things of which we cannot doubt tho we know them only by the senses? as that at present I am in this place, that I am sitting by a fire, that I have a Winter gown on me, that I feel this Paper with my hands; But how can it be denied that these hands or this body is mine? Unless I should compare my self to those mad men, whose brains are disturbed by such a disorderly melancholick vapour, that makes them continually profess themselves to be Kings, tho they are very poor, or fancy themselves cloathed in Purple Robes, tho they are naked, or that theirheads are made of Clay as a bottle, or of glass,&c.But these are mad men, and I should be as mad as they in following their example by fancying these things as they do.
1Solution.This truly would seem very clear to those that neversleep, and suffer the same things (and sometimes more unlikely) in their repose, then these mad men do whilst they are awake; for how often am I perswaded in a Dream of these usual occurrences, that I am in this place, that I have a Gown on me, that I am sitting by a fire,&c.Tho all the while I am lying naked between the Sheets.
But now I am certain that I am awake and look upon this Paper, neither is this head which I shake asleep, I knowingly and willingly stretch out this hand, and am sensible that things so distinct could not happen to one that sleeps. As if I could not remember my self to have been deceived formerly in my sleep by the like thoughts; which while I consider more attentively I am so far convinced of the difficulty of distinguishing sleep from waking that I am amazed, and this very amazement almost perswades me that I am asleep.
2Doubt.Wherefore let us suppose our selvesasleep, and that these things are nottrue, viz. that we open our eyes, move our heads, stretch our hands, and perhaps that we have no such things as hands or a body. Yet we must confess, that what we see in a Dream is (as it were)a painted Picture, which cannot be devised but after thelikenessof somerealthing; and that therefore these Generals at least,viz.eyes, head, hands, and the whole body are thingsreally existentand notimaginary; For Painters themselves, (even then when they design Mermaids and Satyrs in the most unusual shapes) do not give them natures altogether new, but only add the divers Parts of different Animals together; And if by chance they invent any thing so new that nothing was ever seen like it, for that ’tis wholy fictitious and false, yet the colours at least of which, they make it must betrue Colours; so upon the same account, tho these General things as eyes, head, hands,&c.may be imaginary; yet nevertheless we must of necessity confess the moresimpleanduniversalthings to beTrue, of which (as of true Colours) theseImagesof things (whethertrueorfalse) which are in our minds are made; such as are the nature of a body in General, and its Extension, also the shape of things extended, with the quantity or bigness of them; their number also, and place wherein they are, the time in which they continue, and the like, and therefore from hence we make no bad conclusion, thatPhysick, bothNatural, andMedicinal,Astronomy, and all othersciences, which depend on the consideration ofcompound things, areDoubtful. But thatArithmetick,Geometry, and the like (which treat only of the mostsimple, andGeneralthings not regarding whether they really are or not) have in them somethingcertainandundoubted; for whether I sleep or wake,twoandthreeadded make five; asquarehas no more sides thanfour&c.neither seems it possible what suchplain truthscan bedoubtedoff.
2Solution.But all this While there is rooted in my mind a certain old opinion of thebeingof anOmnipotent God, by whom I amcreatedin the state I am in; and how know I but he caused that there should be no Earth, no Heaven, no Body, no Figure, no Magnitude, no Place,and yet that all these things should seem to me to be as now they are? And as I very often judge others to Erre about those things which they think theyThroughly understand, so why may not I bedeceived, whenever I addtwoandthree, or count the sides of a Square, or whatever other easy Matter can be thought of?
3.Doubt. But perhapsGod wills notthat I should bedeceived, for he is said to beInfinitely Good.
3.Solution.Yet if it wereRepugnantto hisGoodnessto create me so that I should bealways deceived, it seems alsounagreeableto hisGoodnessto permit me to be deceivedat any time; Which last no one will affirme: Some there are truely who had rather denyGods Omnipotence, then beleive all thingsuncertain; but there at present we may not contradict. And we will suppose all this ofGodto befalse; yet whether they will suppose me to become whatIam by Fate, byChance, by acontinued chainofcauses, or any other way, because toerreis anImperfection, by how much the lesspowerthey will Assigne to theAuthorof myBeing, so much themore Probable it will be, that I am soImperfectas to bealwayes deceived.
To which Arguments I know not what to answer but am forced to confess, that there is nothing of all those things which I formerly received asTruths, whereof at present I may notdoubt; and this doubt shall not be grounded on inadvertency or Levity, but upon strong and Premeditated reasons; and therefore I must hereafter (if I designe to discover any truths) withdraw my assent from them no less then fromapparent falshoods.
But ’tis not sufficient to think onlyTransientlyon these things, but I must take care torememberthem; for dayly my old opinions returne upon me, and much against my Will almost possesse my Beleife tyed to them, as it were by a continueduseandRightofFamiliarity; neither shall I ever cease toassentandtrustin them, whilst I suppose them as in themselves they really are, that is to say,something doubtful(as now I have proved) yet notwithstandinghighly Probable, which it is much more Reasonable to beleive then disbeleive.
Wherefore I conceive I should not do amiss, if (with my mind bent clearly to the contrary side) I should deceive my self, and suppose them for a While altogetherfalseandImaginary; till at length the Weights of prejudice being equal in each scale, no ill custome may any more Draw my Judgement from thetrue Conceptionof things, for I know from hence will follow no dangerous Error, and I can’t too immoderately pamper my own Incredulity, seeing What I am about, concernes notPracticebutSpeculation.
To Which end I will suppose, not anInfinitely perfect God, theFountainoftruth, but that someEvil Spiritwhich is veryPowerfulandcraftyhas used all his endeavours todeceiveme; I will conceive, the Heavens, Air, Earth, Colours, Figures, Sounds, and all outward things are nothing else but the delusions of Dreams, by which he has laid snares to catch my easy beleif; I will consider my self as not having hands, Eyes, Flesh, Blood, or Sences, but thatIfalsely think thatIhave all these;Iwill continue firmly in this Meditation; and tho it lyes not in my power todiscover any truth, yetthis is in my power, not toassent to Falsities, and with a strong resolution take care that theMighty deceiver(tho never sopowerfulorcunning) impose not any thing on my beleife.
But this is a laborious intention, and a certain sloth reduces me to the usual course of life, and like a Prisoner who in his sleep perhaps enjoy’d an imaginary liberty, and when he begins to suppose that he is asleep is afraid to waken, but is willing to be deceived by thePleasant delusion; so I willingly fall into my opinions, and am afraid to be Roused, least a toilsome waking succeeding a pleasant rest I may hereafter live not in thelight, but in the confuseddarknessof thedoubtsnow raised.
